In the processing of integrated circuits electrical contact must be made to active device regions formed within the wafer substrate typically comprising nocrystalline silicon. The active device regions are connected by highly conductive paths or lines which are fabricated above an insulator material, and which covers the substrate surface. To provide electrical connection between the conductive path and active device regions, an opening or contact is provided. Ultimately, an electrically conductive contact filling material is provided in the contact opening to make electrical contact to the underlying active device region.
It is desirable during the processing of integrated circuits to provide an intervening layer to prevent the intermixing of the contact filling materials with silicide and the underlying silicon. Accordingly, this intervening layer is typically provided to prevent the diffusion of the silicon and silicide with an associated plug filling material and to effectively adhere the plug filling material to the underlying substrate. Such material is accordingly also electrically conductive and commonly referred to as a "barrier layer" due to the anti-diffusion properties of same.
In the formation of a stacked capacitor structure which is employed in a DRAM, a lower electrode is typically electrically connected to another substrate device by means of a polysilicon plug. Normally, the barrier layer separates the polysilicon plug from the lower electrode of the capacitor to prevent both silicon diffusion into the electrode and oxidation of the plug which may be occasioned by the continued processing of the integrated circuit. A DRAM storage node capacitor is formed when a dielectric layer is interposed between a lower electrode and an upper electrode. The capacitor is typically covered and protected by a planarized layer of silicon dioxide. The capacitor is accessed by a bit line contact through a field effect transistor gated by a word line.
The above design is not without drawbacks. For example, to obtain useful electrical performance, the dielectric layer is typically deposited or otherwise annealed at a very high temperature and in an oxygen ambient. Under these processing conditions, oxidation of the underlying barrier layer, polysilicon plug or active area may undesirably occur. If oxide forms, a parasitic capacitor will be created. This parasitic capacitor would be disposed in series with the storage node capacitor. The resulting parasitic capacitor will prevent the full application of voltage to the storage node. This, in turn, will result in a decrease in the amount of charge which can be stored by the capacitor.
In addition to the problems outlined above, designers of integrated circuits are often faced with difficulties in providing adequate coverage of high dielectric constant materials over typical capacitor geometries utilized in high density DRAMS and other memory circuitry.
It would be desirable, therefore, to improve upon the design of a capacitor and methods for forming a capacitor which achieves the benefits to be derived from prior fabrication techniques, but avoids the above and other detriments individually associated therewith.